The subject before us is both
an important and timely one.One reason
for this is because the word “antithesis” itself has in many ways fallen into
disuse.As a result, there is a measure
of ignorance today concerning what exactly the antithesis is.It is good, therefore, that we take the time
to look at and set forth the meaning of this term.

It is also an important and
timely subject because the truth of the antithesis is very practical.That is expressed in the subtitle for this
pamphlet, “Godly Living in Ungodly Times.”The antithesis, you see, has to do with how we live, and more
specifically, with how we do so in relation to the world in which God has
placed us.We realize that the world we
live in is not a godly world.Society is
not Christian.Rather, we live in very
ungodly times.And that in itself makes
this subject very timely and crucially important to every one of us.

However, what especially
makes it important and timely is the fact that things are not improving in this
world, but rapidly getting worse.As the
end of time approaches, wickedness abounds, temptations get stronger, and Satan
puts greater pressure upon the people of God to conform to the world.And as regards the specific subject we are
now considering, namely, technology, the attacks of Satan in our day come
especially against our children and young people.That makes the subject all the more urgent
and all the more important, for the children and youth of the people of God
are, the Lord willing, the future leaders in the church of Christ in this
world.

We need, therefore, to be
reminded of this important truth, and to be instructed concerning our calling
as God’s people in the midst of an evil world.

My subject is, “Living
Antithetically in a Technological Age.”Before specifically looking at this, however, we need first of all to
consider what the antithesis itself is.

The Idea of the Antithesis

As already stated, the word “antithesis”
is not one that all are familiar with.Perhaps some have not heard it before.As far as the English word itself is concerned it is made up of two
words, “anti” and “thesis.”The word
anti means “against.”The word “thesis”
is often used in reference to a position paper that a student must write.In that paper, the student presents a certain
position or viewpoint on a subject.Thus
the word “antithesis” literally means to be against a certain position, or a
certain viewpoint.

What helps further in
understanding this term is to realize that it comes from a Greek word that
means literally, “to set or to place against.”And thus the antithesis can be defined, as far as the word itself is
concerned, as something that is the direct opposite of something else, a person
or a thing that stands in contrast, or in opposition to something else.

The Scriptures themselves,
however, are most helpful in explaining what exactly is meant by this
term.And in seeking to know what the
Scriptures teach concerning it, we must look first of all at the passage in God’s
Word where the whole idea and thought of the antithesis is first
mentioned.That passage is
Genesis 3:15.
In that verse, God is speaking to
the devil after man has fallen into sin.God says to the devil, “And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel.”

That verse is the antithesis
in a nutshell.That verse gives us the
definition of the antithesis.God says
to the devil, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed.”Enmity between the
seed of Satan and the seed of Christ.Enmity between the children of the devil and the children of God,
between the ungodly and the righteous, between the church and the world.That is the antithesis.

There are a few important points that must be noted from
Genesis 3:15.
First of all, as we have already said, enmity is at the heart of
it.Enmity as you know is hatred, war, hostility,
conflict.And God says, “That is what
exists between Satan and Christ, and that is what exists between their seeds.”Not friendship, not fellowship, not love
(under any circumstances), but enmity.There are these two seeds in the world: the seed of the woman, and the
seed of the serpent.And because of the
antithesis that God puts in place, these two seeds do not get on together, and
may not get on together.They are
radically different – radically different spiritually.There must therefore be separation between
them.

Notice, secondly, that this
enmity is put in place by God.God says,
“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed.”It is not you and I that create this
enmity.It is not you and I who decide
that we must be the enemies of the devil and the wicked world.It is not you and I that decide that there
should be separation between the godly and the ungodly.God puts it there.It is God Who puts in place enmity, hatred,
opposition, and warfare between the seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent.

God does that in three very
significant ways.First of all, God does
that in the decree of predestination in eternity, in the decree of election and
reprobation.God determined in eternity,
before He even created man, and before man fell into sin, and before God spoke
these words to the devil, that the human race would be made up of two
completely different people, the elect and the reprobate.That is where the antithesis originates – in
God’s decree of predestination.

In the second place, God puts
the enmity between the two seeds in place and makes it a reality through the
work of Christ on the cross.On the
cross the Lord Jesus Christ died, shed His blood, and laid down His life to
redeem.But He did not redeem
everyone.His sacrifice on the cross was
not universal.But Christ died on the
cross for His sheep, for His people.And
that, you realize, was a death of Christ and a work of Christ in order to
redeem the people of God from him who was their natural father, the devil.And by being redeemed from the devil they now
belong to Christ, and to God.The fact
that Christ died only for some makes the antithesis a reality.If the Lord Jesus Christ had died to save all
men, then the antithesis would not exist.

In the third place, God sees
to it that this enmity exists through the work of the Holy Spirit.This is accomplished through the Spirit’s
work of regenerating those for whom Christ died.This work radically changes us, making us
very different from the ungodly.And
thus it is a work that results in enmity and conflict existing between us and
the ungodly.Thus the Spirit’s work of
regeneration is a means by which God sees to it that the antithesis exists in
the world.

The Spiritual Character of
the Antithesis

When we speak of the
antithesis, it is very important that we understand that this separation
between the godly and the ungodly is a spiritual separation.It is true that sometimes, out of necessity,
it takes physical form.But essentially
the separation between the church and the world is spiritual.

The antithesis does not mean
world flight.It is not the people of
God turning their backs on the world, organizing themselves into separate
communities, and isolating themselves from the ungodly.That was what the Anabaptists taught and
practiced at the time of the Reformation in the 15th and 16th
centuries.And it is really what the
Anabaptists still practice today, as seen for example in the Amish, who refuse
to use technology, electricity, automobiles, and so on.

The reason some advocate such
physical separation is because as they look at the world and the things that it
does and produces, they notice much evil.They therefore reject all that is in the world, saying (wrongly) that
evil is in the things themselves.We
know from the Word of God, however, that that is not the case.I Timothy 4:4-5
tells us, “For every creature
of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”It is not the things themselves that are
evil.

Something very important is
forgotten by those who think that the calling of Christians is to isolate
themselves physically from the world.What I refer to is the fact that even the child of God has the world
within his own heart.Every person in
the world, even the regenerated believer, takes the world with him wherever he
goes, within his own heart, and in his sinful flesh.It is impossible, therefore, for anyone to
isolate himself from the world and all its sin.

Clearly, therefore, the
antithesis is to be understood as being spiritual enmity, and therefore
spiritual separation from the world.We
could put it this way: not world flight, but world fight.That is the antithesis.

The Scriptures speak of that not only in
Genesis 3:15,
but throughout.The antithesis is expressed, for example, in
II Corinthians 6:14
&
17: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with
darkness? ... Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.”And in
Revelation 18:4
we are commanded, “Come out of her, my people,
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

When by the grace of God we
obey His Word and are spiritually separate, then we and our children are
spiritually safe.The Scriptures tell us
that “Israel then shall dwell in safety alone”
(Deuteronomy 33:28).

The Calling With Regard To
Technology

As is clear from what has
been said thus far, and as is especially clear from the Scriptures just quoted,
the antithesis is not just an idea or theory, but it is also a calling.And that calling is the command that comes to
the people of God to live antithetically, to live a life of spiritual
separation from the world.That is
really the whole of the Christian life.It is a life of spiritual separation and spiritual contrast.It is a life in which we may not be friends
with the world.It is a life of being
pilgrims and strangers on this earth.

We may not be those whose
lives are characterized by synthesis with the world.Such synthesis is very popular today.There is the push for cooperation between the
church and the world.It is said that
the church and the world should join forces in order to accomplish common
goals.But such synthesis amounts to
trying to unite light and darkness, truth and the lie, Christ and the
devil.Not synthesis, but the
antithesis. That is our calling.

Those who are the friends of
God may not be friends with those who are the enemies of God.We are commanded
(I John 2:15),
“Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world.”And what are those things that are in the world
that we may not love?They are
(I John 2:16)
“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”Love not the world, and love not these things
of the world.That is our calling as the
people of God in this evil world.And
that is also our calling specifically with regard to the world’s technology.

I am sure we are all well
aware of the fact that we live in a technologically advanced age.Technology is all around us.Technology is very much a part of our every
day life, through such things as televisions, radios, sound systems, computers,
cell phones, ipods, MP3 players, PDAs, digital cameras, CD players, DVD
players, video games, and much, much more.Technology is used today for every possible purpose and in every
possible area of life – for communications, for education, for farming, for
surveillance, for tracking down criminals, in tools, in appliances, in the
entertainment field, in predicting the weather, in fighting wars, in
discovering and curing sickness and disease, etcetera.And none of this stands still, for all the
technology that is available to us keeps advancing and that quite often at an
astounding and mind-boggling pace.

The child of God is called to
live antithetically in relation to all this.What does that mean?What does
that involve?

Obviously one aspect of our
calling is this: we may not view technology as or make technology a god.I trust you understand that there is nothing
wrong with technology itself.Technology
has many positive uses.Consider how it
can be used, especially the internet, for the spread of the gospel, for
missions and evangelism.It is a useful
means to get the Word of God to places where otherwise we could not get it.Because of it people all over the world have
the ability to discover the truth that has been entrusted to us and that we
hold to and believe.Think too of what
technology is able to accomplish in wars, and in the field of education, and in
the medical world.Astounding things!

The temptation we face
because of all this is to replace God with technology.As we consider technology and all the things
it can accomplish and provide, we think to ourselves, perhaps unwittingly, that
technology has attributes that God has: it is all-powerful; it enables us to be
all-knowing; it is able to perform miracles.

Ungodly men and women worship
technology, and the men who produce it.They praise these.They look to
them for the answers.They trust in them
for cures.The child of God, however,
must trust in and worship God alone.We
may not, as the world does, make technology a god.

Another aspect of living
antithetically with regard to technology is that we keep ourselves separate,
not from technology itself, but from its misuse, from its abuse.The world itself abuses technology, using it
for humanistic goals, using it to try to rid the world of the effects of the
curse, and using it to commit and to promote sin, cursing, violence, sex,
homosexuality, drug use, drunkenness, and so on.And even in the medical field the world
abuses technology, as for example in its attempts to clone human beings.The devil is behind it.And the devil and the world are using
technology to tempt the people of God to commit sin.Satan has all of this technology at his
disposal, and he is focused upon using it against the people of God and against
the church of Christ.He uses whatever technology he can to get us and our children to sin and
to go astray.We need to be aware of
this very real danger.

As already stated, there is
nothing wrong with technology itself.But it used to be the case that the world was more “out there.”In the past God’s people could be more
isolated from ungodliness, and less exposed to the world.It used to be easier for parents to guard and
shelter their children from the filth and garbage and uncleanness of the
ungodly world.However, that has now
changed.Technology has changed it.Technology now enables the world to have much
easier access into our lives and homes.Technology enables the world to appear in our living rooms, in our dens,
in our offices, in our bedrooms.We can
tune in to the world in our cars.We can
carry around access to the world in our pockets.We are now living in a time when every
possible evil can be placed before our very eyes, within the confines of our
homes, cars, etcetera.It is all
available at the press of a button, or at the click of a computer mouse.

Let us not be blind to all
this and kid ourselves concerning the dangers.We and our children live in evil times.We face great pressure.It is
therefore urgent that we take seriously our antithetical calling to oppose this
ungodliness that would creep into our homes and lives through the means of
technology.

The Dangers of the
Internet

That leads me to speak for a
little while about what I consider to be a very serious danger in and threat to
the lives of the people of God.What I
have in mind is the internet.Computer
and communication technology enables the internet to be with us wherever we
go.It is possible to have free and open
access to it from desktops, as well as wirelessly through laptops and even cell
phones.This is a grave danger, not
because of the internet itself, but because of how the internet can be and is
used by the world and by the devil.It
is a grave danger because of the wickedness on the internet, which wickedness
can then easily enter our homes and lives.

What makes it a grave danger
is that it is very easy to use as a means to commit grievous sins.In the confines and privacy of your home you
are able to gamble, you are able to listen to the world’s songs, you are able
to participate in ungodly humor, you are able to desecrate the Sabbath
day.Through the use of the internet,
emailing, and blogs, you are able to slander others, to pass on filth to your
friends, and to establish friendships and unequal yokes with ungodly
people.And (perhaps worst of all) one
is able, through the internet, to view pornography.A link that you receive in an email can get
it in front of you.An unwanted pop-up
puts it before your eyes.Or else your
own active searching for it exposes you to this great evil.And one who heads down this path becomes
addicted and gets caught up in the terrible cycle of fulfilling the lusts of the
flesh and the lusts of the eyes.In the
course of time, he or she also becomes desensitized to the sin, and thus looks
for something more explicit, something more filthy, something more vile.

These are sins that bring
grievous consequences.They can have a
permanent affect on a single person who has participated in them.And with regard to the married, they are sins
that pull threads out of the fabric of marriage.Damage is caused that can only be repaired by
the almighty grace of God.

What makes all of this so
dangerous is not only its availability, but also the fact that it is so easy to
commit these sins and to get away with them.You can do it all in private.You
do not have to go out of your home looking for these sins and for places to
commit these sins.In fact, you don’t
even need a computer anymore.Now one is
able to access all this trash with a cell phone.It is all very convenient, very easy, and
very private.No one needs to know or
find out – not parents, or siblings, or a fellow church member, or even a
spouse.Yet a person pursues all this to
the ruin of his or her life, and his or her soul.

The main reason why the filth
that is on the internet is so dangerous to the people of God is because there
is a strong point of contact between us and what the world presents – our
sinful flesh.We still have a sinful
nature.Because of it, we are attracted
to all the sin that the world offers on the internet.It is pleasing and pleasurable to our
flesh.We are strongly tempted to take a
look, or to listen to it for a moment.And gradually one can be sucked in.It begins with a quick look.It
is justified with the excuse that something just “popped up” on the
screen.Gradually, a small step at a
time, the antithesis that ought to characterize the life of the believer is
broken down.There is not enmity and
fighting and separation, but instead love and friendship and fellowship in
relation to the world.One loves the
world and the things of the world.One
is captivated by the things that appeal to the lust of the flesh and the lust
of the eyes.Indeed the internet has the
potential of snaring and leading one into great sin.

The Calling to Fight

In light of all this, the
calling of the Christian is, in one word, to fight!

The fight is first of all
against your own sinful flesh.It is
true that we must not be ignorant of the world itself, and of how evil it
is.We need to be aware of the dangers
of technology.We must fight all
this.But especially we must not be
ignorant of ourselves.Do not be
ignorant of the fact that you are attracted to what the world offers.Do not deny that you are tempted by it.Admit that there are specific sins you are
attracted to.Be aware of them, and
fight!

The Word of God gives good
instruction concerning this fight, and does so specifically with regard to the
wickedness that can be viewed through today’s technology.I have in mind two passages.

First of all there are the
striking words of Job – striking because of how directly they apply to us today.Job stated
(Job 31:1):
“I made a
covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?”You and I do well to say and do the
same.Make a covenant with your eyes to
behold no evil thing!

The other passage is
Psalm 101:3.
We ought to make the same resolve
the psalmist did: “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work
of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.”

Another necessary part of
this spiritual fight is that it must be done for the sake of our children.A parent fights for his or her children by
realizing, and not being ignorant of or turning a blind eye to, the dangers
that exist.Parents fight for their
children by taking oversight and control of what their children do, whether
they are young children or teenagers.They talk with their children often about what they do online, what they
do with their cell phones, and what they do with their friends.Out of loving concern for them, they seek to
discover whether their children are forgetting the antithesis and establishing
instead an unbiblical relationship with the world.

From a very practical point
of view, that means supervising your children’s use of the computer.It means you need to have your computer in a
visible place in the home.And it means that
if you have a wireless network and laptop computers, you need to give special
attention to these things.

There is also the need for
parents to use monitoring and protection software.Regardless of what anyone else might say, you
have a right as a parent to monitor your children.You have a right to know everything that they
do, and to let them know that you may at any time check what they are doing on
the internet, and what sites they are visiting.And this is not only a right, but also a responsibility.Because you are parents you have the calling
to protect your children from the filth of the world, from exposure to evil, as
well as from predators who are on the internet.If you love your children, and that means having a love for their souls
and a concern for their salvation, you will put much effort into monitoring and
protecting them.

Conclusion

I certainly do not know what
goes on in your home and in your life.I
have no idea how you might be using the technology which God enables us to have.I have no clue as to what you watch, what you
search for, and what you see.But
remember this, God knows it all.And one
day you will have to give an account to Him.

I trust that you will use
wisdom to apply what has been said to all of the other areas of life in which
technology is abused.May we all seek
Christ for forgiveness for the sins that we commit with technology, and for
grace to fight against the sins and dangers that technology poses.

In fulfilling your calling
not to love the world, remember the positive – to love the Lord your God.Love Him Who is your faithful Friend.Instead of loving the things of the world,
love the things of God.Instead of
occupying your time with pursuing the things here below, use your time to seek
the things that are above.

Remember that we have an
incentive.That incentive is given us also in
Genesis 3:15,
in these words: “It (i.e., the enmity between the two
seeds) shall bruise thy (Satan’s) head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”God tells us there of victory, the victory of
Christ and of the cross of Christ.At
the cross, Christ overcame and crushed the devil and all his hosts.And the victory of Christ is our victory.Because of Him, we never lose.Because of Him, we will never go lost, no
matter how fierce the enemy.“We are more than conquerors through him who loved us”
(Romans 8:37).
May God grant that to us all.